Zeitgeistlyrik: The Gurkhas Are With You

Zeitgeistlyrik: The Gurkhas Are With You (Satis Shroff)

Ayo Gurkhali!

The Gurkhas are upon you!

This was the battle-cry

That filled the British heart,

With pride and admiration,

And put the foe in fear.

Now the Gurkhas are not upon you.

They are with you,

Among you,

In London,

Guarding the Queen at the Palace,

Doing security checks

For VIPs

And for Claudia Schiffer,

The Sultan of Brunei.

Johnny Gurkhas

Or as the Brits prefer:

Johnny Gurks.

Sir Ralph Turner,

An adjutant of the Gurkhas

In World War I said:

´Uncomplaining you endure

Hunger, thirst and wounds;

And at the last,

Your unwavering lines

Disappear into smoke

And wrath of battle.´

Another General Sir Francis Tuker

Spoke of the Gurkhas:

´Selfless devotion to the British cause,

Which can be hardly matched

By any race to another

In the whole history of the world..

Why they should have

Thus treated us,

Is something of a mystery.´

9000 Gurkhas died

For the Glory of England,

23,655 were severely wounded

Or injured.

Military glory for the Gurkhas:

2734 decorations,

Mentions in despatches,

Gallantry certificates.

Nepal´s mothers paid dearly

For England´s glory.

And what do I hear?

The vast silence of the Gurkhas.

England has failed miserably

To match the Gurkha´s loyalty and affection

For the British.

Faith binds humans

The Brits have faith

In the bravery and loyalty,

Honesty, sturdiness, steadfastness

Of the Gurkhas.

Do the souls of the perished Gurkhas

Have faith in the British?

Souls of Gurkhas dead and gone

Still linger seeking injustice

At the hands of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II,

Warlords, or was it warladies, they died for.

How has the loyalty and special relations

Been rewarded in England

Since the Treaty of Segauli

On March 4, 1816 ?

A treaty that gave the British

The right to recruit Nepalese.

When it came to her own kind,

Her Majesty the Queen

Was generous.

She lavishly bestowed lands,

Lordships and knighthoods

To those who served the crown well,

And added more feathers to England´s fame.

A Bombay-born Salman Rushdie

Gets a knighthood from the Queen,

For his Satanic and other verses.

So do Brits who play classic and pop.

When it comes to the non-British,

Alas, Her majesty feigns myopia.

She sees not the 200 years

Of blood-sacrifice

On the part of the Gurkhas:

In the trenches of Europe,

The jungles of Borneo,

In far away Falklands,

Crisis-ridden Croatia

And war-torn Iraq.

Blood, sweat and tears,

Eking out a meagre existence

In the craggy hills of Nepal

And Darjeeling.

The price of glory was high,

Fighting in the killing-fields

Of Delhi, the Black Mountains,

Khyber Pass, Gilgit, Ali Masjid.

Warring against Wazirs, Masuds,

Yusafzais and Orakzais

In the North-West Frontier.

And against the Abors,

Nagas and Lushais

In the North-East Frontier.

Neuve Chapelle in France,

A hill named Q in Gallipoli.

Suez and Mesopotamia.

In the Second Word War

Battling for Britain

In North Africa, South-East Asia,

Italy and the Retreat from Burma.

The Queen graciously passes the ball

And proclaims from Buckingham Palace:

´The Gurkha issue

Is a matter for the ruling government.´

Thus prime ministers come and go,

Akin to the fickle English weather.

The resolute Queen remains,

Like Chomolungma,

The Goddess Mother of the Earth,

Above the clouds in her pristine glory,

But the Gurkha issue prevails.

´Draw up a date

To give the Gurkhas their due,´

Is the order from 10 Downing Street.

´OMG1,

We can´t pay for the 200 years.

We´ll be ruined as a ruling party,

When we do that.´

A sentence like a guillotine.

Is the injustice done to the Gurkhas

Of service to the British public?

It´s like adding insult

To injury.

Thus Tory and Labour governments have come

And gone,

The Gurkha injustice has remained

To this day.

Apparently,

All Englishmen cannot be gentlemen,

Especially politicians,

But in this case even fellow officers.2

Colonel Ellis and General Sir Francis Tuker,

The former a downright bureaucrat,

The latter with a big heart.

England got everything

Out of the Gurkha.

Squeezed him like a lemon,

Discarded and banned

From entering London

And its frontiers,

When he developed gerontological problems.

´Go home with your pension

But don´t come back.

We hire young Gurkhas

Our NHS doesn´t support pensioned invalids.´

Johnny Gurkha wonders aloud:

´Why they should have thus

Treated us,

And are still treating us,

Is a mystery.´

Meanwhile, life in the terraced hills of Nepal,

Where fathers toil on the stubborn soil,

And children work in the steep fields

A broken, wrinkled old mother waits,

For a meagre pension

From Her majesty´s far off Government,

Across the Kala Pani,

The Black Waters.

Faith builds a bridge

Between Johnny Gurkhas

And British Tommies,

Comrades-at-arms,

Between Nepal and Britain.

The sturdy, betrayed Gurkha puts on

A cheerful countenance,

And sings:

´Resam piriri3,´

An old trail song

Heard in the Himalayas.

About the Author: Satis Shroff is the published author of three books on www.Lulu.com: Im Schatten des Himalaya (book of poems in German), Through Nepalese Eyes (travelgue), Katmandu, Katmandu (poetry and prose anthology by Nepalese authors, edited by Satis Shroff). His lyrical works have been published in literary poetry sites: Slow Trains, International Zeitschrift, World Poetry Society (WPS), New Writing North, Muses Review, The Megaphone, The Megaphone, Pen Himalaya, Interpoetry.

Satis Shroff is a member of "Writers of Peace," poets, essayists, novelists (PEN), World Poetry Society (WPS) and The Asian Writer. He is a regular contributor on The American Chronicle and its 21 affiliated newspapers in the USA, in addition to Gather.com etc.